Report: Boycott Movement Targets Egyptian Band for Coordinating Palestinian Show with Israel

The Algemeiner reports: An Egyptian rock band is facing boycott threats from Palestinian university students after it coordinated an upcoming show in the West Bank with the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the Hebrew news site nrg reported.

Massar Egbari (“Compulsory Detour”) — a four-member group founded in Alexandria in 2005 — is set to perform on Saturday at Birzeit University, north of Ramallah. However, the nrg report said, some students there have declared they will not attend the concert, claiming it would promote the normalization of ties between Israel and Egypt.

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On social media sites, these students are using the hashtag #normalizationisnotcompulsory, a play on the band’s name. Some have suggested that Massar Egbari wait to come to the West Bank until after the establishment of a Palestinian state and the “liberation from the Israeli occupation.”